Building a Better Brand

Branding has become the 21st century buzz word in marketing and advertising circles. Corporations, such as Apple, NBC and McDonald’s, have spent millions in the last decade redesigning and reinventing their brand identities. A successful branding process (which includes the development of company and product names, logos, and other visual elements such as color and symbols) can establish an company as a leader of an industry. Thus, colossal corporate giants are not the only organizations seeking to develop brand identity in the new century. Nonprofits have begun to invest time and money into developing visual, emotional and cultural identities in order to distinguish themselves in the marketplace.

Notably, to coincide with a $200 million capital campaign, the Seattle Art Museum has undergone a major re-branding in order to enhance its image with the general public, attract larger donors, and tie together its three distinctive physical spaces – Seattle Art Museum, Olympic Sculpture Garden, and Seattle Asian Art Museum. The Seattle Art Museum had long been nicknamed “SAM” after its initials by the Seattle locals and those in the “know.” Thus, the museum embraced the slangy moniker in its new brand identity. The museum slimmed down its old heavy, clunky, black and white logo which spelled out each word of the name, Seattle Art Museum, to a new pencil-thin, sky blue streamlined logo which simply says SAM. The new corporate identity of SAM encompasses the same sleek and modernized feel as commercial entities such as Citi and Google which emphasize minimalism and evoke a feeling about the company rather than an explanation. Additionally, SAM has cleverly integrated a continued theme of 3 throughout the branding process. SAM has 3 letters, the museum is conducting 3 simultaneous projects one for each the 3 spaces, and each of the locations has an individual logo that is designed on 3 lines.

SAM’s new brand identity also offers the museum innovative opportunities to capture new dollars. With the new identity in place, SAM launched its capital campaign project under the title, “I AM SAM” (notice only 3 additional letters were added to the brand identity to make the title). Not only is the campaign title clever but it embraces the new community- and values-based approach to fundraising.

The clarity of this re-branding makes SAM noticeable and remember-able in the increasingly cluttered cultural landscape. Moreover, it reminds us that nonprofits do not have to be ten or twenty years behind the trends, they
can – and should be – the leaders of creative and innovative strategies which connect and resonate with the public.